


An Identity Dissolved

by soysaucevictim



Series: Mental Worlds [2]
Category: Psychonauts, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, POV Second Person, Surreal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 05:44:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13711092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soysaucevictim/pseuds/soysaucevictim
Summary: Another thoughtexperiment, this time at visualizing Sixbones’ mental landscape, a la Psychonauts.





	An Identity Dissolved

So, here we are again.

Wondering, wondering what it must be like to be in the mind of this poor, shambling mess.

Their brain is not so easily defined in real terms or anatomy, but perhaps still worth peering into.

Oh, and I hope you won’t be leaving anything behind. This visit is strictly on an observational basis, you understand?

—

Unlike last time, the entrance wasn’t a smooth one. It felt like wading through melted taffy.

But on the other side, you find yourself in the middle of a forest covered in snow. There is a trail carved by footprints, you follow them. It’s very cold, penetratingly so. You know immediately that this normal scene is just the surface.

You continue to walk the winding path, a path that seemed like it should’ve crossed over itself multiple times. As you wander, you notice glimmering figments of monsters in the corner of your eye: a beleaguered reindeer, armored dogs at attention, and a few other forms. They stand there, stock still. You try to reach out to them, but there’s nothing to grasp.

You have no other choice but to keep following the trail. Along the way, you see several outposts. Many were stationed by figments of canine guards. But one of them was different, it was unmanned. Walking over to it, you see that there’s a figment of a hotdog stand behind the counter. There were also intangible magazines full of puzzles on the counter.

It was an odd sight, somehow important, but you felt like you had to keep moving. Further along the trail, you see a few strange constructions – obstacle courses that were left unfinished? It was scattered switches, stones, hazards with no cohesion. Though you try to interact with these parts, you realize they too were phantoms.

Standing there wasn’t going to answer that question, but moving forward might.

It isn’t long before you see a small village in the horizon. You see more figments and vibrant, festive decorations ahead. You can almost make out the welcoming sign. You feel like this place is home. But as you approach, you begin to slowly sink into the snow.

The snow no longer felt like snow, but like the goo from before.

You feel like you’re drowning. It’s blindingly white. And you are falling.

—

Suddenly, the scenery changes.

The snowy wood replaced by volcanic crag. The village replaced by a laboratory. The building was massive and distorted, almost as if it was melting in the sweltering heat.

You gather your feet and approach the door.

You hear echoes of thuds, hurried shuffling noises across the floor, and desperate, confused muttering as you pass through. You can’t make out the words, but you felt a sense of anguish run through you.

You follow the feeling, the sounds, deeper into the lab. The architecture wept around you, the paint on the walls cracked, the fluorescent lights dimmed and flickered. There were displays mounted on the walls, constantly scrolling garbled letters.

It’s like walking through an abandoned hospital ward. It was getting cold again, enough to make your breath turn to fog.

You hear muttering turn to sobs, and then suddenly a blood-curdling scream emanates from deep within the hallway. The displays flicker to slightly more intelligible messages. But they were the same words over and over again. Like a damaged record.

Fear and curiosity guide you toward the scream.

More figments begin to appear – creatures that were made of a mangled fusion of multiple monsters. Unlike other figments, they moved – dripping in an endless loop, staring right through you, from within their cells.

Going further- you see the room where the scream came from.

But there was nobody there, only a hospital bed. Then you hear something rattling from behind it.

Carefully, you go around the bed.

You see a small strange vault, which shuddered and squirmed from being cornered by you. You manage to get it open, after kneeling down in front of it. And from inside it, a video plays back to you.

> The scene starts from the place you heard the thuds, it was context. You see a distraught skeletal monster rushing his brother through the facility. You see the scientist who tried to help him. You see where it all went horribly wrong. It cuts to static and the vault disappears.
> 
> It was as if you heard and felt the memory of one of these brothers, and watched it again through the eyes of the other.

After some pause you hear noises emanate from the other side of the hospital bed. You decide to stay low and listen. Soon, you recognize the brothers’ voices, but for some reason – it was unclear who said what. As if they spoke in unison, holding a conversation with themselves.

 “Hey, I’m glad you’re still around.”

“I guess I am too. But-”

Static.

“Hey, you want to hear a joke?”

Static.

“Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock…”

Static.

“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!…”

Static.

“Who’s there?”

Did they notice you? Or was it just a response in the conversation?

Your question is answered when you look up to see them looking over you, leaning next to each other. For some reason, you notice one of them was wearing a baggage tag around his neck.

One of them seemed happy and curious to see you. The other seemed to be… unreadable.

They’re staring at you. You want to say something. You want them to say something

But, as soon as one of them opens their mouth, the two start to dissolve into each other. And into a thick fluid that rapidly floods the room. Everything was white again and in what felt like seconds, the current forces you back out of the room and that’s when your vision clears.

The hallway begins to crumble around you, the floor disappearing into the void. Where did the rest of the lab go?

Then you notice a puddle of the same fluid is in front of you, on what little of the floor that’s left. This puddle swells into an amorphous, pulsing mass. In disgust, you back yourself up into the edge of the floor. Is it pushing you away?

You think it is. And suddenly you’re falling again.

The mass then reforms into several skeletal hands, they’re trying to catch you, as if it changed their mind.

But you are pulled away to reality before they could.

 

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks for the creators of the characters derived (special thanks to [zarla-s](http://zarla-s.tumblr.com) for creating Sixbones) and my beta reader - Louis.
> 
> Originally posted [here](http://soysaucevictim.tumblr.com/post/157934298088/an-identity-dissolved).


End file.
